Philip proved indecisive, soft in nature, and timid. The strong personalities of his parents apparently crushed him, and policies of his father dominated him. People called him "the Bold" on the basis of his abilities in combat and on horseback and not on the basis of his political or personal character. He was pious but not cultivated. He followed the suggestions of others, first of Pierre de La Broce and then of his uncle King Charles I of Naples, Sicily, and Albania.

Philip was born in Poissy to King Saint Louis IX of France[2] and Margaret of Provence, queen consort of France. As a younger son, Philip was not expected to rule a kingdom. At the death of his elder brother Louis in 1260, he became the heir to the throne. He was then 15 years old and had less skill than his brother, being of a gentle character, submissive, timid and versatile, almost crushed by the strong personalities of his parents.

His mother Margaret made him promise to remain under her tutelage until the age of 30, but his father King Louis had him released from this oath by the pope, preferring to improve his son through education. Pope Urban IV released Philip from his oath on 6 June 1263. From 1268 Pierre de La Brosse became mentor. Saint Louis also provided him his own advice, writing in particular Enseignements, which inculcate primarily the notion of justice as the first duty of the king. He also received a very faith-oriented education. Guillaume d'Ercuis was also his chaplain before being the tutor of his son, the future king Philip IV.

Following the Treaty of Corbeil (1258), concluded on 11 March 1258 between James I of Aragon and his father, Philip was married in 1262 to Isabella of Aragon in Clermont by the archbishop of Rouen Eudes Rigaud. As Count of Orléans, he accompanied his father to the Eighth Crusade in Tunis, 1270. Shortly before his departure, St. Louis had given the regency of the kingdom into the hands of Mathieu de Vendôme and Simon II de Clermont-Nesle, Count of Clermont, to whom he had also entrusted the royal seal. After taking Carthage, the army was struck by an epidemic of dysentery, which spared neither Philip nor his family. His brother John Tristan, Count of Valois died first, on 3 August, and on 25 August the king died.[a][3] To prevent putrefaction of the remains of the sovereign, they recoursed to Mos Teutonicus.

Philip, then 25 years old, was proclaimed king in Tunis. With neither great personality or will, very pious, but a good rider, he owed his nickname of "Bold" to his valor in combat than strength of character. He was unable to command the troops at the death of his father. He left his uncle Charles I of Naples to negotiate with Muhammad I al-Mustansir, Hafsid Sultan of Tunis; there was a truce of ten years which allowed him to return to France. He got the payment of tribute from the caliph of Tunis in exchange for the departure of the crusaders. A treaty was concluded 28 October 1270 between the kings of France, Sicily and Navarre and the barons on one hand and the caliph of Tunis on the other.

Other deaths followed this debacle. In December, in Trapani, Sicily, the brother-in-law of Philip, King Theobald II of Navarre, died. He was quickly followed to the grave by Philip's sister Isabella. Finally, a month later, in Calabria, his wife Isabella, while pregnant with their fifth child, fell off her horse. She broke her spine, miscarried and died in terrible pain at Cosenza.

Philip III arrived in Paris on 21 May 1271, and made foremost tribute to the deceased. The next day the funeral of his father was held. The new sovereign was crowned King of France in Reims 15 August 1271.

Philip III of France in 1284 responded to the Sicilian Vespers in support of his partially dethroned uncle. With his sons, the king entered Roussillon at the head of a large army on the ultimately unsuccessful Aragonese Crusade. The war took the name "crusade" from its papal sanction; nevertheless, one historian labelled it "perhaps the most unjust, unnecessary and calamitous enterprise ever undertaken by the Capetian monarchy.".[5] On 26 June 1285, Philip III the Bold entrenched himself before Girona in an attempt to besiege the city. Despite the strong resistance, the French took Girona on 7 September 1285.

Philip quickly experienced a reversal, however, as an epidemic of dysentery hit hard the French camp. The disease afflicted king Philip III personally. The French retreated, and the Aragonese enemy handily defeated the French at the Battle of the Col de Panissars on 1 October 1285.

Philip III died of dysentery in Perpignan, the capital of his ally James II of Majorca, on 5 October 1285. His son, Philip IV of France the Fair, succeeded him as king of France. The attempt of Philip to conquer Aragon nearly bankrupted the French monarchy, causing challenges for his successor.[6]

In the Divine Comedy, Dante envisions the spirit of Philip outside the gates of Purgatory with a number of other contemporary European rulers. Dante does not name Philip directly, but refers to him as "the small-nosed"[8] and "the father of the Pest of France," a reference to king Philip IV of France.

Louis IX of France

Louis IX, commonly known as Saint Louis, was King of France, the ninth from the House of Capet, and is a canonized Catholic and Anglican saint. Louis was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the death of his father Louis VIII the Lion, although his mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled the kingdom until he reached maturity. During Louis' childhood, Blanche dealt with the opposition of rebellious vassals and put an end to the Albigensian Crusade which had started 20 years earlier.

House of Valois

The House of Valois was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. They succeeded the House of Capet to the French throne, and were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589. Junior members of the family founded cadet branches in Orléans, Anjou, Burgundy, and Alençon.

Peter III of Aragon

Peter III of Aragon, known as Peter the Great, was King of Aragon, King of Valencia, and Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death,. At the invitation of some rebels, he conquered the Kingdom of Sicily and became King of Sicily in 1282, pressing the claim of his wife, Constance II of Sicily, uniting the kingdom to the crown. He was one of the greatest of medieval Aragonese monarchs.

Philip IV of France

Philip IV, called Philip the Fair, was King of France from 1285 until his death. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Philip I from 1284 to 1305, as well as Count of Champagne. Although Philip was known as handsome, hence the epithet le Bel, his rigid and inflexible personality gained him other nicknames, such as the Iron King. His fierce opponent Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, said of him: "he is neither man nor beast. He is a statue."

Charles IV of France

Charles IV, called the Fair in France and the Bald in Navarre, was the fifteenth and last king of the direct line of the House of Capet, King of France and King of Navarre from 1322 to his death. Charles was the third son of Philip IV; like his father, he was known as "the fair" or "the handsome".

Eighth Crusade

The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX of France against the city of Tunis in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single crusade. The Ninth Crusade is sometimes also counted as part of the Eighth. The crusade is considered a failure after Louis died shortly after arriving on the shores of Tunisia, with his disease-ridden army dispersing back to Europe shortly afterwards.

Charles II of Naples

Charles II, also known as Charles the Lame, was King of Naples, Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1285–1309), Prince of Achaea (1285–1289), and Count of Anjou and Maine (1285–1290); he also styled himself King of Albania and claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1285. He was the son of Charles I of Anjou—one of the most powerful European monarchs in the second half of the 13th century—and Beatrice of Provence. His father granted Charles the Principality of Salerno in the Kingdom of Sicily in 1272 and made him regent in Provence and Forcalquier in 1279.

Theobald II of Navarre

Theobald II was King of Navarre and also Count of Champagne and Brie, ruling as Theobald V, from 1253 until his death in 1270. He was the son of Theobald and the second Navarrese monarch coming from the House of Blois. After passing away childless, the throne of Navarre passed to his younger brother, Henry I.

Margaret of Provence

John II, Duke of Brittany

John II reigned as Duke of Brittany from 1268 until his death, and was also Earl of Richmond in the Peerage of England. He took part in two crusades prior to his accession to the ducal throne. As a duke, John was involved in the conflicts between the kings of France and England. He was crushed to death in an accident during the celebrations of a papal coronation.

Charles, Count of Valois

Charles of Valois, the third son of Philip III of France and Isabella of Aragon, was a member of the House of Capet and founder of the House of Valois, whose rule over France would start in 1328.

Isabella of Aragon, Queen of France

Isabella of Aragon was Queen consort of France from 1270 to 1271 by marriage to Philip III of France.

Philip I, Prince of Taranto

Philip I of Taranto, of the Angevin house, was titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople, despot of Epirus, King of Albania, Prince of Achaea and Taranto, and Lord of Durazzo.

House of Capet

The House of Capet or the Direct Capetians, also called the House of France, or simply the Capets, ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328. It was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians. Historians in the 19th century came to apply the name "Capetian" to both the ruling house of France and to the wider-spread male-line descendants of Hugh Capet. Contemporaries did not use the name "Capetian". The Capets were sometimes called "the third race of kings". The name "Capet" derives from the nickname given to Hugh, the first Capetian King, who became known as Hugh Capet.

Aragonese Crusade

The Aragonese Crusade or Crusade of Aragon, a part of the larger War of the Sicilian Vespers, was declared by Pope Martin IV against the King of Aragon, Peter III the Great, in 1284 and 1285. Because of the recent conquest of Sicily by Peter, the Pope declared a crusade against him and officially deposed him as king, on the grounds that Sicily was a papal fief: Peter's grandfather and namesake, Peter II, had surrendered the kingdom as a fief to the Holy See. Martin bestowed Aragon on Charles, Count of Valois, son of the French king, Philip III, and nephew of Peter III.

War of the Sicilian Vespers

The War of the Sicilian Vespers or just War of the Vespers was a conflict that started with the insurrection of the Sicilian Vespers against Charles of Anjou in 1282 and ended in 1302 with the Peace of Caltabellotta. It was fought in Sicily, Catalonia and elsewhere in the western Mediterranean between, on one side, the Angevin Charles of Anjou, his son Charles II, the kings of France, and the Papacy, and on the other side, the kings of Aragon. The war resulted in the division of the old Kingdom of Sicily; at Caltabellotta, Charles II was confirmed as king of the peninsular territories of Sicily, while Frederick III was confirmed as king of the island territories.

Battle of the Col de Panissars

The Battle of the Col de Panissars was fought on 30 September and 1 October 1285 between the forces of Philip III of France and Peter III of Aragon. It was a severe defeat for the French, who were already retiring over the Pyrenees when the Aragonese fell on them.

Peter, Count of Alençon

Peter I of Alençon was the son of Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence. He became Count of Alençon in 1269 and in 1284, Count of Blois and Chartres, and Seigneur de Guise in 1272 and 1284. He was also Count of Perche.